Japan has authorised two pioneering stem-cell therapies targeting Parkinson’s disease and severe heart failure, according to one of the manufacturers and local media reports released on Friday.
The treatments are expected to become available to patients within the next few months.
Pharmaceutical firm Sumitomo Pharma announced that it had secured approval to manufacture and sell Amchepry, a treatment designed for Parkinson’s disease that involves transplanting stem cells into the brain of affected patients.
Media reports also indicated that Japan’s health ministry approved ReHeart, a therapy developed by medical startup Cuorips.
The treatment uses heart muscle sheets to help create new blood vessels and improve heart function in patients suffering from severe heart failure.
According to the reports, both therapies could enter the market and begin reaching patients as early as this summer.
Citing the health ministry, the reports noted that they would become the world’s first commercially available medical products based on induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his work on iPS cells, which have the capacity to develop into any type of cell in the human body.
“I hope this will bring relief to patients not only in Japan but around the world,” health minister Kenichiro Ueno told a press conference.
“We will promptly carry out all necessary procedures to ensure it reaches all patients without fail.”
In a statement, Sumitomo Pharma said it had obtained “conditional and time-limited approval” for the manufacture and marketing of Amchepry under a system which is reportedly designed to get these products to patients as quickly as possible.
The approval is a kind of “provisional license”, the Asahi newspaper said, after the safety and efficacy of the treatment was judged based on data from fewer patients than in ordinary clinical trials for drugs.
A trial led by Kyoto University researchers indicated that the company’s treatment was safe and successful in improving symptoms.
The study involved seven Parkinson’s patients aged between 50 and 69, with each receiving a total of either five million or 10 million cells implanted on both sides of the brain.
The iPS cells from healthy donors were developed into the precursors of dopamine-producing brain cells, which are no longer present in people with Parkinson’s disease.
The patients were monitored for two years and no major adverse effects were found, the study said. Four patients showed improvements in symptoms.
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects the body’s motor system, often causing shaking and other difficulties in movement.
Worldwide, about 10 million people have the illness, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation.
Currently available therapies “improve symptoms without slowing or halting the disease progression,” the foundation says.
iPS cells are created by stimulating mature, already specialised, cells back into a juvenile state — basically cloning without the need for an embryo.
The cells can be transformed into a range of different types of cells, and their use is a key sector of medical research.
